Toyota's Teen Driving Expectations

Toyota recently announced its national program to promote and advertise safe driving and motoring called Toyota Driving Expectations. According to sources, teen drivers are more prone to driving impact accidents and auto crashes whether the young generation admits it or not. Particularly sixteen-year-old teenagers have the highest accident rate and have three times more related deaths than most adults.

The Toyota Driving Expectations program serves to teach and educate teens and parents alike about defensive driving methods against real-accident scenes. Sure, schools and other safety driving organizations offer some sort of driver's education but now it is mandated that provisional or graduated driver's license is a must requirement for minor teens. Read: teen drivers who are under 18 years of age.

The program goes deeper on what is currently taught in driving schools and training sessions in order to help teens distinguish dangerous driving situations. It also harbors lessons on careful and reckless driving. Teens and parents steer a driving course while doing the basic distractions: listening to loud music, drinking and talking on a cell phone. They also experienced hard braking maneuvers on wet and dry pavement (this is where their off-road capabilities comes in, if they have one) and drive through multiple slalom driving courses. All of these are under professional drivers' scrutiny.

Michael Rouse, Toyota's corporate manager of national philanthropy and community affairs stated that Toyota is deeply committed to educate teens and provide them with tools that they need for road driving. According to Toyota, more than 4,000 teens and parents have successfully completed the Toyota Driving Expectations program. The said program was developed and created after several feedbacks from teens, parents and the National Safety Council. Oh yes, a parent or guardian must accompany a teen driver to the four-hour program.

The National Safety Council, which has been hooked with the Toyota program, has provided input on curriculum development boiling down to safety regulations and good road handling. The program includes cues of the Council's trademark programs like the Defensive Driving Course-Alive at 25 and Teen Driver: A Family Guide to Teen Driver Safety.

The program works by starting off with parents and teens dividing into individual groups for part of the course. This allows parents to learn about vehicle safety technology, defensive driving, design know-hows and realistic setting expectations for their teen driver. At the end of the program, teens and parents join together to produce a safe driving agreement to place into action what they have learned.

I'm sure teen drivers will be more alert and careful when they're blasting on the tracks. They will learn specific lessons on how to improve their driving skills and have a better understanding on how to deal with peer pressures and act more responsibly.

Toyota Driving Expectations is being offered at the following locations, so if you're near the vicinity then check it out:

•Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ, 4/13 - 4/15
•Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, IL, 4/20 - 4/22
•DTE Energy Music Center, Clarkston, MI, 4/27 - 4/29
•Santa Anita Race Track, Arcadia, CA, 10/12 - 10/14
•Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, AZ, 10/19 - 10/21 and 10/26 - 10/28

Log onto: toyotadrivingexpectations.com for more details.

Toyota Motor Corp. will operate 15 manufacturing plants along with its Toyota parts in North America by 2008.